This luxury facial will cost you $1,100

When face creams first started running into the hundreds of dollars, customers may have initially done a double-take, but quickly got used to the idea of ponying up serious cash in pursuit of younger, smoother skin. Will they do the same for a facial?

Until now, even the most high-end facials have hovered in the mid triple digits, and those are by facialists such as Tracie Martyn and Kate Somerville, whose clients reportedly have included Madonna, Kate Winslet, Debra Messing, and Penelope Cruz. In fact, the average cost of a facial in the U.S. is about $100, according to the latest research from the International Spa Association. Given the norm, it’s no surprise that the $1,100 Oxy-Star Anti-Pigmentation Treatment at L.Raphael, a premium skincare brand and chain of six spas around the world (including one at the Four Seasons in New York and another in midtown Manhattan), is shaking up the industry.

Factor in the 20 percent tip that’s standard for spa services, and the bill ratchets up to more than $1,300.

It’s a 50-minute to-do that’s supposed to brighten the face and diminish acne, pigmentation and pores, and L.Raphael founder Ronit Raphael, 49, says that the price is relative. “It’s an investment in yourself and you can’t put a cost on that,” she says.

According to Raphael, the Oxy-Star is the next best thing to a facelift. Oyx-Star has appealed to movie stars, who book it before red carpet appearances because of its immediate dramatic effect. Though she’s tight-lipped about which boldfacers have had it done, she did say that Eva Longoria and Dita von Teese have visited an L.Raphael location within the last year.

The Israeli-born Raphael created the four-figure service almost 11 years ago when she launched the L.Raphael brand in Geneva with a seven-story “Temple of Beauty” on the tony Rue du Rhone near Patek Philippe (there are now three in Geneva, two in New York City, one in Cannes, and a seventh opening in Kazakhstan in September). At the time, she was running eight Ronit Raphael spas throughout Israel (there are now 12) and getting a name for her deep cleaning and anti-aging facials. She was approached by a local medical company that told her about a high-speed jet stream machine that doctors were using on diabetics to help with faster healing of scars and bruises.

“They asked if I wanted to use it for facials. I tried it and saw that it did wonders for the skin, and that’s how Oxy-Star started,” she said.

That so-called miraculous gadget is what aestheticians use to apply most of the products in the treatment to the face, neck and chest, and is supposed to amp up their potency. Besides the machine itself, pricey and rare white truffles, which the brand claims help block the production of dark spots and make for a radiant complexion, are the main ingredient in Oxy-Star, and their extracts are in the ampoules, serum and collagen and firming masks clients are sprayed, massaged and slathered with.

Both are why the facial is so expensive: the high-speed gadget is priced upwards of $100,000, and the products themselves run the brand a few hundred dollars for each service.

The cost doesn’t seem to deter takers. Every L.Raphael location has two of the devices, which means getting an appointment isn’t easy since bookings fill up far in advance.

A surprising 35 percent of Raphael’s clients are men, who, she says, can’t hide skin damage and aging with makeup the way women can.

The priciness of Oxy-Star is an eccentricity, says Mia Kyricos, the chief brand officer for Spa Finder Wellness 365, the world’s largest network of spas. “Of course there are exceptions, especially in urban markets, but for the most part you don’t have to pay so much for a facial that’s just as effective,” she said. “That being said, I’m sure your skin will look fantastic, and it’s fun to say you did it.”

Safety is luxurious, as this natural beauty brand shows

True Nature Botanicals founder and CEO Hillary Peterson didn’t have any grandiose plans to create a skincare line that beat out Crème de la Mer in clinical trials. The former retail marketing professional just wanted non-toxic, high-performing products that would smooth lines and wrinkles without subjecting her skin to industrial chemicals typically found in cosmetics.

Peterson began her career in middle market lending. Then, like a not-surprising number of Bay Area executives turned entrepreneurs, she moved into a role at Levi’s, where she headed up retail marketing for the 501 brand. “Everything I did at Levi’s was focused on looking at consumer experience, and how do you enhance it,” she says.

Levi’s asked Peterson to stay on as a consultant after she gave birth to twins. She did, for a while. Then she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, a diagnosis she also calls “an epiphany.” Peterson knew she needed to slow down and spend more time with her kids in a way that supported radically healthy lifestyle choices.

She also wondered what preventative measures she could take to avoid toxins in common household products and popular cosmetics. (Her son has also struggled with chronic fatigue.) The more research she did, the more she began to understand the health hazards of applying petroleum-based products like lotion directly to the skin or sudsing up with supposedly mild, infant-friendly shampoos that are actually formulated with formaldehyde.

Courtesy of True Nature Botanicals

In addition to surviving thyroid cancer, Peterson had survived a melanoma diagnosis years before. Her dermatologist suggested she slather herself in sunscreen. Sun protection is a no-brainer, but many mainstream sunscreens are formulated with chemicals like oxybenzone and octinoxate, both of which have been identified in laboratory studies as potential hormone disruptors. “Looking at the ingredients, I thought, this feels like Sophie’s Choice,” she laments.

Peterson knew how to market to savvy consumers. She also knew the ins and outs of financing a company. “I’m a bit of a mutt,” she says of her career experience. She adds with a laugh, “Mutts can end up being really great dogs!”

Searching for her next career opportunity and hoping to apply her newfound knowledge and passion, she found Marie Veronique Organics, a company in Berkeley producing high-quality, all-natural products. Peterson and MVO founder Marie Veronique Nadeau joined forces, and for the six and a half years they worked together, MVO doubled its volume of the business year over year.

When the duo parted ways professionally at the end of 2014, Peterson moved forward with one of the company’s product lines, Pacific Skin Care, to establish her own brand, True Nature Botanicals.

The Pacific Skin Care line is a valuable asset, given its proven track record. In a 45-day randomized, comparative, double blind trial conducted in 2013, the TNB product line faced off against legendary high-end skincare brand Crème de la Mer. The independently conducted trial compared True Nature Botanicals Pacific Face Oil and Face Serum against La Mer Moisturizing Cream in women over 40 (with a mean age of 55) in South Florida and tested long-term impacts and improvements, such as increasing facial hydration and smoothness.

The results are striking. True Nature Botanicals outperformed La Mer across nearly every test measurement, including a decrease in fine lines and wrinkles, pore size and congestion, and redness and inflammation.

Peterson notes that while not by design, her products are also slightly more affordable. True Nature Botanicals Face Serum and Face Oil duet is packaged in two one-ounce bottles for a total price of $230, while a 2 oz. jar of La Mer cream retails for $285. “But we don’t want to represent ourselves as bargain brand,” she says with a laugh.

In 2014, True Nature Botanicals also released a small line of solid fragrances made without any synthetic ingredients. When the TNB team sat down with one of the oldest fragrance houses in France, the perfumers wanted to know what the budget would be. Peterson had a better idea.

“I would rather say: what would a perfumer use if she could use anything? What would be a luxurious budget?” Peterson asked. “Our goal is not just to offer luxury but to offer the very best products available without toxins.” Without budget constraints determining ingredient choice, Peterson says the perfumer called the collaboration “a dream.”

Besides La Mer, True Nature Botanicals has competitors in the all-natural beauty products. For example, Kari Gran, an eponymous eco-friendly skincare line that launched in 2011 and is now stocked by Sephora, just announced 2014 year-end gross revenue of $500,000, a 200% YOY increase. The company’s co-founder and namesake, Kari Gran, battled an autoimmune disorder that, like Peterson, gave her the same pause and passion to create a holistic skincare solution.

Even a simple search on the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep cosmetics database of more than 70,000 products brings up a handful of similar all-natural, woman-founded, environmentally conscious skincare lines.

True Nature Botanicals has never accepted investor funding and doesn’t release revenue numbers. But the company makes a tidy profit by focusing on selling direct to consumers online and through select partner salons and spas around the country. “Eighty to ninety percent of our business is direct, and we plan to maintain that ratio,” says Peterson. In 2015, the company will launch room mist and hair care product lines.

“It turns out what’s good for you is also luxurious. You don’t have to choose,” Peterson notes. When she’s frustrated trying to get her message across, she looks to European countries, where she says there’s more respect for the precautionary principle—the idea that until something has been tested, it should be avoided. In the U.S., the opposite is often true, and major beauty companies aren’t going to be the ones leading the charge for safer cosmetics and skincare products.

Beauty, Gangnam style

While the French have long been the global style leader in the sartorial stakes, for decades beauty innovation was being led by Japanese cosmetics companies such as SK-II and Shiseido. But in the last few years, South Korean beauty brands have been claiming a bigger stake of the American beauty market, which is estimated to be $44 billion dollars, according to the NPD Group.

“There has been a cumulative interest in Korean beauty and it all started with the BB cream,” says Megan McIntyre, the beauty director at the lifestyle site Refinery29.

A BB, or beauty balm, is in an all-in-one skincare and makeup hybrid that moisturizers, covers blemishes, and contains sunscreen. The products hit U.S. shelves in 2011 and now nearly every major cosmetics brand carries one. “Once American women caught on to BB creams, they started becoming curious about other Korean beauty products,” says McIntyre.

Last year, McIntyre hired a South Korea-based correspondent to report on the latest trends from the ground. “If Korea has had BB creams for about 20 years, what else are we missing?” she says.

The two major Korean beauty powerhouses are AMOREPACIFIC (think of it as the Estée Lauder of Korea) and its brands include LANEIGE, Iope and Sulwhasoo, while LG has SUM 37 and the soon-to-be-launched belif. Other major brands include Dr. Jart, Tony Moly and Amarte. While many of these brands are sold at Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus as well as Sephora, there’s also a host of websites selling curated Korean beauty products, such as Glowrecipe, Peach and Lily, and SokoGlam.MemeBox is a Korean beauty subscription service, similar to Birchbox.

But beyond the BB cream, and the often cute packaging- Tony Moly’s lip balms are packaged in cherry and lip shaped compacts- what’s the appeal of Korean beauty, and how is different than its American counterpart?

It all comes down to innovation and an obsession with beautiful skin, says Christine Chang, the co-founder, along with Sarah Lee, of Glowrecipe.com.

“Korean companies are churning out innovative products at an unprecedented rate, and it’s powered by consumers willing to do anything for good skin,” says Chang. “Korean women have a totally different approach to beauty. They don’t rely on one product for their skin and they don’t use makeup to mask their imperfections.”

A typical Korean skincare regime involves multiple products and multiple steps—usually somewhere between 10 and 17, says McIntyre. “It’s not a chore for Korean women though. They view it as a ritual or pampering experience.”

The hallmarks of Korean beauty include ingredients such as ginseng and even snail mucin; facial-sheet masks which can be made from cotton fiber or natural material such as kelp; and products containing fermented ingredients. K beauty (as its called) also has its own lingo. An “essence” is similar to a super-charged serum and K beauty experts talk about “skin expression,” which is how consumers work a product into their skin.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest Korean brands available in the U.S.

Farm to (treatment) table: Spas go organic and local

Hang on to your kale, as farm to table is moving from the dining room into the spa. While many top spas have been offering organic treatments for some time, they’re taking it one step further with treatments using fresh herbs and citrus grown on-site. Freshly picked lavender, eucalyptus, and honey are cropping up in everything from handmade scrubs to face masks.

This comes as little surprise to Mia Kyricos, the chief brand officer at Spafinder Wellness Inc., who sees it as a convergence of multiple trends. “People are very conscious about what they are putting inside their bodies, as well as on them,” she said. “Consumers are also looking for authenticity as well as a one-of-a-kind experience in a spa.”

Spas which incorporate farm to table treatments often allow guests to choose their own herbs to customize their treatment. At The Boulders in Arizona, guests can head outside to the resort’s garden to handpick herbs that will be used in their treatment, while therapists at the Lake Austin Spa Resort bring a cart full of herbs into the treatment room.

What’s the benefit of choosing your rosemary or eucalyptus? Plenty. “It’s a hyper-personalized beauty experience,” said Kyricos, “and it’s made fresh on the spot.”

For Trisha Shirey, the Director of Flora and Fauna at the Lake Austin Spa Resort, the fresh herbs grown on site—which include chamomile, rosemary, sage, peppermint, eucalyptus and lavender—offer crowd- pleasing natural scents as well as healing properties.

“Rosemary is invigorating and great for sore muscles, while lavender can help you get a better night’s sleep,” she said.

Shirey also said the power of scent cannot be downplayed.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had customers say that the smell of lavender brings them right back to the South of France, or rosemary reminds them of Greece,” says Shirey. “The sense of smell helps make that connection to a memory.”

Here’s a look at a handful of hotel spas incorporating farm to table spa treatments.

The lucrative business of making Hollywood’s leading men look good

Women will likely experience the bulk of the superficial “who are you wearing?” questions on Oscar Sunday, but the men of Hollywood also put a fair amount of time into looking their red carpet best.

Grooming expert Diana Schmidtke knows all about that. This year, she’s responsible for polishing Best Actor nominee Michael Keaton—and she’s worked with George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jon Hamm and about every other Hollywood leading man.

Schmidtke’s own story feels like it’s straight from the pages of a movie script. Originally from rural Antioch, Illinois, she graduated high school early and began attending beauty school at Pivot Point Academy in Chicago. She made her way out to Los Angeles at 21 with $800 and the dream of working as a stylist in the entertainment industry. Schmidtke failed at first, but eventually carved a niche as a men’s grooming expert—or, as she describes it, making hot guys hotter.

Making guys attractive is a big business. The men’s global grooming market is valued at $19 billion and is projected to grow to $26 billion by 2020—and many of the mega-brands that drive the market have Schmidtke on speed dial. Here’s how she operates as an independent contractor within Hollywood’s holy trinity of hair, skin and body.

Edited transcript:

What does your work schedule look like the night of an awards show?

On a typical red carpet date, you have two rounds of people. First, you get your clients who are walking the red carpet. You have about an hour and a half to yourself once the show starts, and then you have round two, which is making up everyone else who isn’t at the show but who will be going to parties. That’s when you begin running to their houses to get them ready. You better have some driving navigation skills.

How do grooming brand sponsorships figure into the evening for you?

If I do the red carpet, I can sell my credits for skin, hair and body. Let’s say a men’s shampoo company buys a look: I’m not allowed to talk about anyone else in the news that day specific to hair. That doesn’t mean a skincare brand can’t also do the same thing for skin. So in that hour and a half between when the red carpet is over and round two begins, I might be on the side of the road fielding calls and talking to the press about the grooming brands.

Can you give us a sense of the rates for a Hollywood stylist?

If I do the cover of a major magazine, it will be $250 to $300 per day, but then I can start to sell it [to the grooming brands] from there. A magazine cover brings prestige. If you do a cover and use a particular product, that brand will pay you anywhere from another $1,000 to $5,000. Now you’ve turned that cover into something bigger. If I am doing a bigger event or some kind of press on behalf of a brand, then the rate can go up to $50,000, depending on what it is.

How much can a top stylist earn annually?

I would say between $100,000 and $500,000 or $600,000 depending on your relationships. It’s not bad for someone who went to beauty school for 10 months.

You first moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1997 to become a stylist in the entertainment industry. How did that go?

I drove out to Los Angeles in my Saturn with a friend and $800. She was there to pursue acting and production, and we both failed miserably and moved back to Chicago six months later. I waited tables for a year and then moved back to Los Angeles in 1999 by myself with $1,100, a dog and that same car. My first lucky break came in a bar. I was sitting next to this guy who had a German accent—and my family is German—so I used my two words of German on him and we started talking. He was Marvin Lynch, a hair stylist with the Celestine Agency, and I began assisting him on shoots. Within six months, I got my own agent at the Celestine Agency. Because a really good hairdresser is hard to find, a lot of makeup artists would hire me on their jobs to do the hair, so they would do the makeup and I would do the hair. I was used to that Chicago work ethic, and I just kept working to build a portfolio until I got my own hair and makeup jobs.

What was your first big commercial break?

I was working as the groomer on an Out photo shoot in 1999 when a publicist from a different shoot in the studio came over and said the groomer for the shoot with her client, David Boreanaz, had messed up the date. She asked if I could help, so I ran back and forth the rest of the day between the shoots to get them both done. After the shoot, David and his publicist thanked me for my time. The publicist said she wanted to make it up to me and, of course, you hear that in Hollywood 1,000 times before it actually happens. Well, she did make it happen, and the next thing I knew I was on the press junket for American Pie, and then that transitioned to David Spade and Ashton Kutcher. It just blew up from there because those were all of her clients. Do I think I would have gotten that opportunity had I not worked morning, noon and night? No. I had thousands of “no’s” before I got the “yes.”

Does it ever feel intimidating to apply makeup to the faces of actors or give them skincare tips?

I have the attitude that they’re the best at what they do, and I’m the best at what I do. I’ve never been worried about the work. I would say the part that can be nerve-racking is when it’s an icon that I grew up on. I get excited with someone like John Travolta or Harrison Ford. When I met Oprah, I was doing makeovers on guys on her show. At the end of the show, Oprah put her arm around me, and I didn’t know if I should also put my arm around Oprah—does one put their arm around Oprah?

Can anyone break into the space based on skill alone?

Nowadays, you have to have an agent. If you don’t have an agent, people will be like, “Oh, you’re on your own.” You need someone working on your behalf while you are doing a job. I am now with a management agency, Something Artists, that really only takes on huge brands. It has Katy Perry’s stylist, J. Lo’s make-up artist and Britney Spears’s stylist. But, while an agent can set you up with people and brands, if you can’t retain 75% of them, then there is not a lot an agent can do for you.

You work with both consumers and brands. Do you see any untapped market opportunities for the brands?

Men want to know the science behind the products, and I would love to see more of that. If I hand a guy some free swag, he will ask why he needs it and how it pertains to him. I think the grooming companies are underestimating the value of sharing the science behind their products with men.

Stowaway co-founders want to recolor $60 billion beauty industry

At first blush, Stowaway might seem like a niche e-commerce site geared toward world travelers or trial-size beauty product junkies. But the new direct-to-consumer cosmetics startup, which launched today, also aims to wipe away several smudges on the beauty industry blueprint.

The brainchild of co-founders Chelsa Crowley and Julie Fredrickson, Stowaway sells luxurious, portable beauty products that are both easier to tuck and transport, but will also be a safer alternative to giant containers of cosmetics no normal human could possibly use up before the expiration date.

Rather than trial or travel—because Stowaway products aren’t necessarily either—Fredrickson and Crowley call the smaller-by-volume products “right-size.” Available in several color variations, the initial six-item collection includes mascara, BB cream, and pot rouge. Products range in price from $10 to $22 each, with a six-item kit bundled together for $75.

By now, there are very few multi-billion-dollar industries that haven’t been disrupted. When distribution went digital, the music industry was suddenly very out of tune with its customers. Television executives took their eyes off the screen for a second, and viewers had changed how and when they wanted to record and stream their favorite sitcoms.

Stowaway is poised to solve a few problems plaguing the sometimes rather ugly $60 billion beauty industry, of which 70% is controlled by 10 conglomerates including LVMH and L’Oreal. Many major brands still spend major money to sell through brick-and-mortar stores, while startups like Stowaway save big by doing away with retail overhead and selling direct to consumers.

Courtesy of Stowaway Cosmetics

While makeup hasn’t changed much since the 1950s, women’s lives are dramatically different. Constantly on the move, juggling work and family, Crowley explains that contemporary women need cosmetics compatible with an active lifestyle. Fredrickson adds that the existing conglomerates are simply not providing the variety of size options most women want.

Then there’s the question of waste and safety. Even the savviest consumers are often surprised to discover that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is not required and thus does not regulate cosmetic products or ingredients. The Environmental Protection Agency oversees some chemical safety standards under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976. But unless the 2013 bipartisan Chemical Safety Improvement Act gains enough support in Congress, TSCA will roll into its fourth decade on the books without any major overhaul. In the meantime, household products and personal care items have increasingly contained chemicals linked to various cancers and early onset puberty in girls.

This is more than a skin-deep problem for the Stowaway founders. Crowley promises that to ensure the highest quality, all Stowaway products will be formulated without endocrine-disrupting chemicals like parabens and will be compliant with European Union consumer safety standards.

“Most women don’t know about expiration dates on products,” she adds. Often, cosmetics expire three to 12 months after purchase. Most consumers can’t afford or don’t want to purchase a replacement when there’s still plenty of product left in the bottle. Selling a useable amount should therefore be safer for consumers. The only waste reduction aspect the Stowaway founders haven’t figured out is how to cut down on and recycle packaging.

It’s also surprising how uselessly oversized beauty products have become the default, while ultimately being a waste of money. Fredrickson says, “Consumers would be up in arms if other industries operated this way.” She points to food, and the fact that no one buys in bulk with the assumption half of the product will spoil. “Cosmetics are Costco size, and consumers are smart,” she adds. “They know they aren’t getting the best value.”

Stowaway investors, which include Dave Morin and Kevin Colleran’s Slow Ventures, know they’re backing two women who understand their target market. “We joke that we’re the yin to each other’s yang,” Crowley says. The makeup and fashion stylist’s resume includes stints at Estee Lauder, Clinique, and Bobbi Brown. In the past decade, Fredrickson co-founded several startups and worked in e-commerce, branding, and marketing at Ann Taylor and Equinox. “We know the [Stowaway] customers very well, and that’s a compelling proposition for investors,” Fredrickson says. “They’re hungry for the same growth we are.”

Fredrickson adds, “I have a friend who always says, ‘There’s a lot of money to be made in taking women seriously.’”

That goes for appealing to consumers, but betting on Crowley and Fredrickson’s right-sized business plan seems like an equally wise choice.

How one woman got past the “no’s” and landed VC funding

It’s slim pickings if you’re a female entrepreneur hoping to raise money. A recent study from Babson College found that venture capital firms with female partners are more than three times as likely to invest in companies with female CEOs than firms led by all-male teams, but the percentage of women in the VC industry has dropped from 10% to 6% since 1999—and only 2.7% of VC-backed companies have a female CEO.

So what’s a female founder to do?

If you’re Emily Weiss, you shrug off rejection. The 29-year-old founder of beauty blog Into The Gloss recently raised $8.4 million in funding; she plans to use the capital to scale her new skincare line Glossier. “I’m not afraid of being told ‘no’,” she says of her journey to millions. “It was an important exercise in understanding different funds and learning which would be the best fit for me.”

Rather than just licking her wounds when an investor turned her down, Weiss pushed for feedback so she could continue iterating her business plan. “So much of venture capital is pattern recognition,” she says. “I sat across the table from many men who might not have necessarily understood the difference between foundation and tinted moisturizer.” Weiss handled male VCs beauty illiteracy by tweaking her pitch to emphasize her success—her blog’s 8.5 million monthly pageviews—and discuss the market needs her company addresses in the $454 billion beauty market. “The onus is on you to make your idea compelling,” says Weiss.

Before her most recent fundraising round, Weiss found a trusted investor in Forerunner Ventures’ Kirsten Green. Green’s firm, which is known for helping to launch wildly successful e-commerce companies like Warby Parker and Birchbox, provided seed funding for Into the Gloss. “Kirsten dove deep, asking the most questions because she is also a consumer of these products,” Weiss says. “I could feel her conviction and I knew that when we said yes to working together it meant as much to her as it meant to me.” Green was also Weiss’ connection to Thrive Capital, which led Into the Gloss’ most recent fundraising round.

Hadley Mullin, a partner at private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners, says the gender imbalance in the investment community does not make sense—especially at firms that invest in consumer brands, as women drive household spending. “For male and female entrepreneurs alike, having a woman investor can bring credibility when discussing product positioning and expansion opportunities,” she says. Mullin adds that while some male investors have a track record of working well with women entrepreneurs, female investors tend connect more easily with products created by or for women.

But, for the time, the investment world’s poor gender dynamics remain unchanged. Weiss says that women entrepreneurs need to take matters into their own hands and work hard to articulate what makes their businesses valuable and distinct. It’s an uphill battle, but she says it is well worth the fight: Finding strong funding partners, she explains, can allow female entrepreneurs to create brands that matter.

“I approached fundraising as an opportunity to align myself with partners who have more varied experience and diverse backgrounds than I do, to help bring Glossier to life,” she says. “I’m so fortunate to have aligned myself with Kirsten; it was like finding a needle in a haystack.”

Estée Lauder sees big edge over rivals by going deep into China

Estée Lauder ELC realized years ago that there is more to China than Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, and made sure to build a presence in smaller (though still big) cities in the world’s fastest growing luxury market. The beauty products company has a bricks-and-mortar presence in 90 cities in China now, something CEO Fabrizio Freda told Fortune in an interview will give it an edge over rivals and sustain its growth even as China as a whole is maturing as a market for high-end beauty products.

Still, the company, famous for brands ranging from M.A.C. to Lauder to La Mer, lowered its annual profit forecast on Tuesday and warned investors of slowing trends in China caused by a bunch of factors, such as a crackdown on corruption that has curbed gift giving, turmoil in Hong Kong and a drop in travel by the Chinese. Earlier this week, rival beauty company L’Oréal reported that global sales in its luxury unit rose 4.9% last quarter, slower than the 7.5% pace a quarter earlier, raising concerns that the China juggernaut is losing some steam.

Freda told Fortune why he thinks China, and Russia, which is facing its own issues, will long be important growth markets for Estée Lauder.

What is behind the slowdown in China sales?

“China is slowing down as a luxury market but is still growing very solidly as a luxury cosmetics market, I would like to clarify. The reason (China) growth has slowed down is first, because the affluent group of consumers in the high end and middle class has reached a certain level of saturation (in the biggest cities).”

“So the growth now comes mainly from the new consumers, while growth in consumption by the affluent consumer has normalized.”

What has been the impact of some of the Chinese government’s actions on luxury and the events in Hong Kong?

“This anti-corruption campaign in the last 12-18 months has reduced the amount of gifting in China of luxury goods, including to a lesser extent, prestige cosmetics. So the consumption for personal use remains very solid, but the gifting habit has decreased.”

“The political turmoil in Hong Kong has reduced the number of visas, particularly for short-term travel. The combination of this has reduced the number of Chinese traveling and, by extension, those exposed to luxury goods. Many of these people live in tertiary cities where luxury goods do not exist and can only buy them when they travel.”

Estée Lauder was one of the first Western brands to branch out in China beyond the five or so biggest cities and is now in 90 cities there—what impact is that having on your China growth?

“This was a very important move. When you go deep into populations and you go into cities which are very big but much less international and less exposed to the rest of the world, you become more local.” [Some 70% of the company’s online sales in China are from cities where this is no distribution yet, something Freda said bodes well for its expansion.]

“I still believe that the luxury cosmetics market in China will remain in the long term one of the most vibrant and interesting opportunities in our industry.”

You warned of the impact of sanctions on the Russian market—what are your prospects there?

“Russia is obviously a volatile market. But we are doing very well there because we have a diversified portfolio of products there and of retail partners.”

“Russia is softening because the economy is softening. But in the long-term, I still believe Russia will be a superlative market because women there are enthusiastic beauty consumers.”

Ulta Beauty’s CEO on how she plans to keep up its explosive growth

Not many retailers have been spared from having to close stores in these years of consumer doldrums and exploding e-commerce.

Yet, not only has Ulta Beauty ULTA bucked that trend, but on the contrary, the beauty store chain has been aggressively increasing its store fleet: the retailer now has about 715 shops, more than double the number five years ago, with plans to reach 1,200 locations in another five years.

Ulta has deftly turned itself into the top specialty beauty retailer by outmaneuvering the competition with a simple formula: combining what shoppers can find separately at those retailers, along with salon services, under one roof.

For instance, Ulta offers salon services and higher-end products that mass market chains like Wal-Mart Stores WMT don’t, beauty advisors one doesn’t find at Walgreens WAG or CVS/pharmacy CVS and a more affordable, and complete, assortment of products than at department stores like Macy’s M or Nordstrom JWN.

The results speak for themselves: Ulta reported comparable sales grew 9.2% in the first half of the current fiscal year. Wall Street expects total sales to reach $3.19 billion for the fiscal year ending in February, nearly three times 2009 sales levels.

Ulta CEO Mary DillonCourtesy: Ulta

CEO Mary Dillon, former chief of U.S. Cellular and senior executive at McDonald’s MCD and PepsiCo PEP, laid out the broad outlines of a five-year plan last month that she will flesh out at Ulta’s investor day on Wednesday. She plans to, among other things:

* open some 100 stores per year
* raise e-commerce to 10% of sales from 4% now
* aim for comparable sales growth of 5-7% a year

Ulta will benefit from continued grow in the beauty sector, which has grown 2.3% a year in the last five years according to IBIS World. But at the same time, it is also facing a lot of competition: Kohl’s KSS is rolling out new, full-fledged beauty departments with top brands, while J.C. Penney JCP is expanding the Sephora beauty shops within its stores and upgrading its beauty salons.

Dillon, CEO since mid-2013, spoke to Fortune in an exclusive interview ahead of the investor day about how she plans to maintain Ulta’s edge.

What gap in the beauty retail market is Ulta filling to sustain these growth projections?

“We are really the only beauty retailer where you can buy across multiple categories—color cosmetics, skincare, professional haircare, fragrance – but in addition, we’ve got a salon in every Ulta”

“It’s really a place where a woman can get all of her beauty needs met. No one else offers all those products and experiences in one place.”

Coty COTY and Elizabeth Arden RDEN have each said that sales have been hurt by a mass retailer (which Wall Street analysts took to mean Wal-Mart) pulled back on orders- does that represent an opportunity for Ulta?

“Ulta is a great place for our vendor partners to experience growth.”

“It does provide a platform for us to have a diversified portfolio which helps balance risk of any one product or category and for vendor-partners, we do provide an great opportunity for growth.”

Ulta has been ramping up its assortment of so-called prestige (upscale) products, and has been rolling out boutiques for high end brands like Lancôme and Clinique at 100 stores. Why?

“There’s a lot of innovation and creativity in prestige and we find our guests are responding to that.”

Ulta has chosen to locate its stores primarily in power centers rather than malls. Why?

“Our guest likes the convenience of being able of drive up to the store and not necessarily walk through a mall to find Ulta. This kind of shopping has been trending for some period of time.”

Ulta is experimenting with two small format stores—5,000-square feet in size in smaller towns rather than the typical 10,000-square feet for a typical Ulta. How will those stores be different?

“Women in the U.S. are influenced by the same trends—popular culture, runway trends etc, and our hypothesis is that she’s quite anxious to be able to buy products in her town that perhaps she’s hasn’t been able to in the past.”

“It is really everything Ulta does, all things beauty all in one place, but in a smaller place.” (There is a salon in these stores along with a facial in the Dermologica area.)

Despite its growth, Ulta is still relatively unknown in some parts of America. Is that an opportunity?

“Our awareness gap, and the fuzziness about how people might understand Ulta today is a ripe opportunity for us as we think about going forward. I imagine this is like almost relaunching the brand of Ulta.”

Exclusive: Kohl’s CEO puts comeback plan into high gear

Kohl’s has lost its mojo, and CEO Kevin Mansell has a plan for getting it back.

Up until a few years ago, Kohl’s KSS was one of the fastest-growing companies in retail history, winning over legions of shoppers with popular, affordable brands, good customer service and neat, well laid-out stores away from malls and closer to where shoppers live.

Then somewhere along the way, the mid-tier department store lost its way, culminating with comparable sales declines in 2013 that have continued into this year, along with shrinking profits.

Kohl’s CEO Kevin Mansell concedes the company caused many of its own problems. Among them: inadvertently sending customers to competitors by missing out on exploding areas of retail such as beauty and a card rewards program that didn’t reach enough of its customers.

So now, Mansell, a 32-year company veteran and CEO since 2008, is looking to kickstart growth through what he calls Kohl’s “Greatness Agenda,” which is as much about giving executives a framework for their thinking as it is about specific initiatives.

“I’ve likened it a lot internally to how Kohl’s developed its original personality: the brands-value-convenience premise,” Mansell told Fortune in an exclusive interview. “We knew we needed to create a new path forward.”

That new path forward entails a number of initiatives that are in many ways standard practice at many retailers already but which are showing early signs they’ll give Kohl’s the boost it needs.

For one thing, Kohl’s is speeding up the rollout of brand new beauty shops within its stores because of early promising results. It is also launching a new loyalty program next month so it can personalize offers, and making it available to any of its customers, not just Kohl’s card holders. Yet another component has been to shift more of its focus back on national brands such as Carter’s kids wear and Nike NKE even though its private collections are highly profitable.

For Kohl’s, it is crucial these efforts succeed: shoppers are as bargain-hungry as ever and have shown they are happy to take their business elsewhere. And the retailer is up against tough rivals, particularly a resurgent J.C. Penney JCP and an aggressive Wal-Mart Stores WMT, at a time of chronic shopper malaise.

Kohl’s, founded near Milwaukee in 1962, enjoyed breathtaking growth for years: Kohl’s grew from 79 stores in 1992, when it became a publicly traded company, to nearly 1,150 two decades later, often by snapping up locations abandoned by shrinking rivals like Kmart and now-defunct ones like Mervyn’s. Between 2002 and 2012, revenues more than doubled, reaching an all-time high of $19.3 billion. By in 2010, cracks began to appear: sales per square foot, a key measure of a retailer’s health, started falling, a performance all the more disappointing given the bleeding at competitors like Penney and Sears SHLD.

After years of massive expansion, many retail analysts weren’t sure Kohl’s knew how to increase revenue without the benefit of opening new stores. (In the last year, it has only added five stores.)

So about a year ago, Mansell and other top Kohl’s executives started formulating this new multi-year strategy. Now it’s showtime.

On the comeback trail

Of all of Kohl’s current efforts, perhaps none is more representative of what it is trying to achieve than its big push into beauty.

On a recent visit to a Kohl’s in Brooklyn, New York, near Coney Island, one could find products gathered in a 700-square-foot beauty department in a prominent location within the store, staffed with four dedicated associates. It boasted exclusive cosmetics brands like Flirt and Elle, in addition to national brands like Lorac and Cargo. Before the makeover, Kohl’s had a far more limited beauty section, and items were given an unremarkable presentation.

While the effort might seem like Kohl’s is just trying to mimic Penney’s massive success with its Sephora stores—those generate $600 per square foot a year, nearly four times the overall Penney average —the company says early results show it is paying off: such beauty sections in higher-volume (more than $15 million a year) Kohl’s stores have helped those locations’ comparable sales beat the chain’s average by 2 percentage points.

The segment currently only accounts for about 2% of overall sales, but the company says that could grow to 5% in the next few years. Kohl’s started out the year with beauty sections at 280 of its stores and should get to about 900 by the end of next year. The calculus is that more beauty will mean more traffic in Kohl’s stores.

“Our core customer is a regular purchaser of beauty products, and she doesn’t buy them at Kohl’s, which means that visit is going somewhere else,” Mansell said. The beauty expansion will also serve as a template for further new merchandising initiatives, he added.

Another misstep Mansell’s new strategy seeks to fix is the overly large focus on Kohl’s private and exclusive collections. They now generate about 52% of sales, compared to about 30% in 2005. (At Macy’s, M they account for some 25% of sales.)

Private collections offer higher profit margins, and in many cases, such as Kohl’s Simply Vera Very Wang and Jennifer Lopez lines, have been big hits. But they also have overshadowed Kohl’s assortments of national brands like Nike and Levi Strauss — which collectively for the last four quarters have outperformed Kohl’s in-house brands in terms of comparable sales, and are key to generating store visits.

“We know that we have slipped with consumers in the perception of Kohl’s as a place to get great national brands,” Mansell said, pointing to the need to find a more balanced mix. Still, new exclusive lines, such as its recently launched Juicy Couture apparel collection, will remain an important part of its merchandising.

A big piece of Kohl’s strategy is the loyalty program it is launching next month. Rather than being available solely to Kohl’s store card holders, as its current awards program is, which Mansell said is ill-suited at a time many consumers can’t qualify for credit or simply prefer to use other means of payment like cash or another credit card, the loyalty card will be open to any Kohl’s shopper, regardless of payment method. The loyalty program, launching nationwide in October after successful testing in some select markets, will give Kohl’s a much bigger trove of the data it needs so it can make personalized offers based on a shopper’s habits and tastes.

There is a growing sense on Wall Street that Kohl’s is finally starting to get its form back and these initiatives will help: Kohl’s shares have been trading around a 52-week high.

“They’re probably in the best position they’ve been in five years,” said Brian Yarbrough, an analyst with Edward Jones. Still, Kohl’s knows it is not out of the woods yet—after all comparable sales are down 2.3% so far this year.